Funding

Nigeria’s former Minister of Health, Professor Adenike Grange has blamed the Nigerian governments at all levels for the poor health care delivery system in the country.

Delivering a keynote speech at the 19th Professor Bassey Andah Memorial Lecture at weekend, Professor Grange said short life expectancy caused by high infant and maternal mortality rate is one of the major challenges facing the country’s healthcare delivery system.

Wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, says continuous investment in health care infrastructure is one of the ways by which the government can tackle the high rate of maternal and newborn mortality in the country.

She, however, added that the task could not be left to the government alone, stressing that private partnership was also very key.

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian government agency , says it is contributing 2.6m Canadian dollars ($1.9m) to the funding of a maternal and child health programme in Nigeria and in five other West African countries – Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Benin and Burkina Faso.

Nigeria currently has a high incidence of maternal mortality. According to the United Nations ‎Population Fund, Nigeria is responsible for 10 percent of the global maternal mortality burden. That is, about 111 women die during child birth in the country.